Though, as Thranderz said, I would have expected purple for TABA and cyan for DoS...

Oh well... *shrugs* I just hope Peter knows what he's doing (concerning the films, and his choices of colours). ....."Loyalty, Honor, ......A Willing Heart. I can ask no more than that."...... ~ Thorin Oakenshield

I hadn't thought of purple for TABA at all, I reckoned it more likely to be gold, with grey or silver for DoS....but this is nice! "Choosing Trust over Doubt gets me burned once in a while, but I'd rather be singed than hardened." ¯ Victoria Monfort

So...am I the only one looking forward to this album more than the film itself?
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That's not to say I'm not looking forward to the movie (cause I certainly am), but if there was one aspect of AUJ that entirely lived up to the standard set by LotR, it was Howard's score, as represented on the album release. I got chills down my spine listening to the CDs last year. Masterful scoring.

As for the cover art, wow! Purple was unexpected, but a nice choice. I'm already anticipating seeing that cover on my iPod underneath AUJ. "All men dream; but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake to find that it was vanity; But the dreamers of day are dangerous men. That they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible."- T.E. Lawrence

The music is also the thing which i'm looking forward to the most in the upcoming movies . Especially now with all the new characters and places which will bring loads of new themes. I'm also very curious to hear the NZSO's work, and how it might give us a new, unique 'sound' compared to the previous scores.

I was looking forward for the first Hobbit movie and the score but actually I was even more looking forward to the music. Why? Perhaps because I hear the music more often than seeing the films. After watching the movies a couple of times I had enough for half a year or so. But the score... well I could hear it every day at least once and it wouldn't be too much.

I bought the SE-Soundtrack the day it was released. I bought the regular Bluray a couple of days after it's release... Well even a few weeks I guess. But I don't know it if it was because I had seen the movie in cinema that many times and I'm still waiting for the EE?

The point is: The score is at least one of the most important parts of the movies for me. Especially if it's released a couple of days earlier than the movie we can (again) start guessing what which using of each theme could imply. And even more interesting: Which new theme and cue represents which new character or location? This time it's even more thrilling because we'll meet so many more characters and places.

The only bad pont about it is: When you heard the score before watching the movie you get used to it and you enjoy and love it and you're even looking forward to hear it in the cinema and then... it's replaced with tracks from the LOTR score... well but that's the risk you take ;-)"There is only one Lord of the Ring, only one who can bend it to his will. And he does not share power."

Okay so this is really important (to me at least) Here's a theory:
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As most of you know, each film has had its own colour coding on all merchandise and the Extended Editions have followed these colours:

FotR - Green TTT - Red RotK - Blue AUJ - Brown

So far DoS has been Cyan. And now the soundtrack is purple, so it seems at first to be inconsistent... BUT!

If we look at the "Complete Recordings" for LotR we find that the colour coding is mixed:

FotR - Red TTT - Blue RotK - Green

So using this evidence I think Purple is in fact the colour for TaBA and DoS's Extended Edition will be Cyan, like the merchandise. No idea why the soundtracks change the colours around, but there you go! That's my theory

The green color coding on FOTR was established way later than the first limited soundtrack (red). Then the soundtrack producers decided just to rotate the existing colors. Russian LOTR & Hobbit Site: Henneth-Annun.ru

I thought the only FOTR soundtrack that even used red packaging was the complete recordings, which came out years after the entire trilogy was already finished. The green color for FOTR was established in 2001-2002 when all of the merchandise was just coming out.

...was accompanied by a limited edition release. Special leather packaging, with an expanded booklet and alternate disc art (and RotK included a special DVD on Howard's scoring process).

The colors used on these editions (Red for FotR, Blue for TTT, & Green for RotK) were then repeated on the Complete Recordings. "All men dream; but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake to find that it was vanity; But the dreamers of day are dangerous men. That they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible."- T.E. Lawrence

You just had to link to all those great editions and pictures, pushing me into a whirlwind of nostalgia, didn't ya?

Now I'm here listening to the original RotK album, getting all misty-eyed.

(side note: oh my god, it really has been ten years since I first listened to this CD! Where does the time go?! ) "All men dream; but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake to find that it was vanity; But the dreamers of day are dangerous men. That they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible."- T.E. Lawrence